Secondary school pupils in Fife are back in class full-time for the first time this year.
Around 20,000 youngsters returned to the region’s 18 local authority secondary schools this morning.
Fife is among six council areas in Scotland where school has resumed after the Easter holidays, the others are Aberdeen, Dumfries and Galloway, Moray, Shetland and the Western Isles.
Pupils in other areas – including Dundee, Angus and Perthshire – will be back next Monday and shielding pupils on April 26.
Bell Baxter High School
Bell Baxter High School, in Cupar, was among those eager to welcome all its S1 to S6 pupils back for the first time since they broke off for the Christmas holidays.
Our reporter Laura Devlin was there this morning chatting to pupils and staff and will reveal later today how they feel to be back.
Everyone in Team Bell Baxter is looking forward to having all our learners back in school tomorrow. Please remember the following points:
😷Face masks to be worn at all times inc buses
🏫Learners should enter the building through their Year Group Entrances
💦Sanatise regularly— Bell Baxter High School (@Bellbaxter_HS) April 11, 2021
All secondary pupils must wear face coverings in school buildings are being offered twice weekly lateral flow test kits.
However, the two-metre distancing requirement in place when they returned part-time in March has been scrapped.
Assessments
Senior pupils are now in the final few weeks of their courses for National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher qualifications, for which the Scottish Qualifications Authority has produced an alternative certification model.
Although exams have been cancelled for a second year, there is controversy around assessments which some pupils have reportedly been told will be conducted under closed-book and exam conditions.
Due to the soaring Covid-19 infection rate then, schools reopened in January only to children of key workers and vulnerable children.
P1 to P3 and nursery pupils returned on February 22 and P4 to P7 went back three weeks later.
Secondary school pupils also returned from March 15 on a part-time basis, but a distancing requirement in force then meant some were in classes for as little as one day a week.
